07/09/2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry today announced the Senate’s passage of his e-prescribing provision in the Medicare bill by a vote of 69-30. This landmark provision will, for the first time, require physicians to adopt electronic prescribing technology. This reform mirrors S.2408, bipartisan legislation introduced by Sen. Kerry last year.
“e-Prescribing is a fundamental step towards modernizing our health care system,” said Sen. Kerry. “It will save lives by reducing medical errors and save billions of dollars.”
The bill also removes discriminatory co-payment rates for seniors who need mental health services. Today, seniors pay a 50% co-payment for mental health services, but only a 20% rate for other medical care. Sens. Kerry and Snowe have introduced legislation in each of the last three Congresses to reduce this co-payment to 20%.
The bill prevents payment cuts to our nation’s physicians who serve seniors on Medicare – cuts that would have jeopardized seniors’ access to doctors, particularly primary care physicians who are already struggling. The bill also makes important investments in beneficiary access to the Medicare program, especially for low-income seniors who struggle to pay for health care.
With a resounding 'Aye', and to the cheers of his fellow Senators, Ted Kennedy returned to the floor of the Senate yesterday to vote on a signature issue, securing Medicare, and ensuring that we pay our nation's physicians equitably for treating our seniors.
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You know who didn't? John McCain.
The vote was 69-30, which even to the math challenged like me equals 99. There are, as
20% of Americans know, 100 United States Senators. So who missed the vote? The guy who just had brain surgery? Um, no. He was there. But as
Ben Pershing notes in the Washington Post, McCain was not, extending his record to three full months -- 76 consecutive votes -- without casting a yea or nay. He's actually
only voted once since March 14. Nice work if you can get it.
Maybe we shouldn't complain. Maybe it's really
better if McCain doesn't vote. After all, he has a lifetime voting score from the League of Conservation Voters of 26%. 0% from the ACLU, 33% from the HRC, 7% from the NAACP, 45% from the NEA, 15% from the AFL-CIO, 25% from the APHA, 40% from the ARA, and 20% from the DAV. That's a whole lot of letters to vote against, but basically, if you're looking for an
anti-environment, anti-civil rights, anti-human rights, anti-education, anti-labor, anti-health care, anti-senior citizen,
anti-veteran guy, you should give his office a call and tell him to get back to work. He did, though, get a perfect score from CATO, so if your job's been outsourced and you don't want to lose your next one, you should give his office a call and thank him for staying away.
Edited title.
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